CHANGING ROLE OF THE COUNTY EXTENSION AGENT AS A COMMUNITY EDUCATOR

Problem. This study was designed to elicit opinions of the respective role perceptions of county extension agents employed by the Florida Cooperative Extension Service system. The study examined the responses of 236 county extension agents on a survey instrument designed to analyze and determine what county extension agents perceive to be their present role as community educators and what they perceive to be their desired role as community educators. Procedure. The procedure used in this study included a review of the literature. Data were obtained from a questionnaire mailed to 287 county extension agents in the State of Florida. Two hundred and thirty-six respondents represented an 84 percent return. The statistical tests used in this study for analysis of results were the t-test and Analysis of Variance. Conclusions. The data led to the following conclusions: (1) Out of twenty-five items in the questionnaire, twenty-four were significantly different. Twenty-two of the items were significant at .01 and twenty-four at the .05 level of confidence. (2) The item with the highest level of difference pertained to county extension agents' present and desired role perceptions "as the leading educators in communities." The results would indicate that 90 percent of the county extension agents aspire to be leading educators in their communities. On the other hand, 65 percent of the respondents presently do not enjoy a role as leading educators in communities. (3) The data indicates that county extension agents would prefer that university specialists expand their role of support to county education programs. (4) The data shows that 90 percent of county extension agents perceive themselves to be community educators in their present role. Similarly, 98 percent of the respondents "strongly agreed" that extension agents should be community educators. Therefore, it can be concluded that county extension agents perceive their role to be a community educator. (5) The discrepancies between what county extension agents perceive to be their present role as community educators and what they perceive to be their desired role as community educators do not relate to such population variables as size of county or age.